Honda Indy Toronto Rewind: The 1980s

A motorsports and Toronto summer tradition began in 1986 at Exhibition Place with the strong backing of Molson Breweries. Today the Honda Indy Toronto trails only the Grand Prix of Long Beach as the second-longest running street race for Indy cars.

Hot off his Indianapolis 500 victory and just over a month removed from the death of Truesports team owner Jim Trueman, Bobby Rahal would win the first race on the streets of Toronto. He would also go on to win the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) championship that season. One famous Canadian by the name of Jacques-Joseph Villeneuve, uncle to the 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, competed in the first event.

Legendary names of the sport won the first four races with Emerson Fittipaldi, Al Unser Jr., and Michael Andretti following suit to Rahal the next three years. The 1989 win for Andretti would be his first of seven at Exhibition Place. Additional Canadian drivers to compete on the streets of Toronto during the 1980s were Scott Goodyear (1987, 1989), Ludwig Heimrath, Jr. (1987-1989), and John Jones (1988, 1989).

To end the decade, this recollection about the 1989 Indy Toronto as written by Norris McDonald, Wheels Editor, in The (Toronto) Star on June 4, 2015:

“1989 was a significant year in Canadian motorsport. Three Canadians were in the Molson Indy field — Ludwig Heimrath Jr. and Scott Goodyear of Toronto plus John Jones from Thunder Bay — and one of them, Goodyear, was about to throw down the gauntlet, the end result of which was a long-term Indy car racing contract with Toronto’s MacKenzie Financial that saw him go on to nearly win the Indy 500 twice.”